Digital Door Opens for Local Economy

County IDA website showcasing 30 office and industrial parks

Companies,
developers and real estate brokers scouting Erie County for locations have a
new digital tool.

The county and
its economic-development partners unveiled a website highlighting about 30
industrial and office parks in the county. The website uses geographic
information system technology, or GIS, to provide detailed imagery of the
parks, along with information about each park, such as available incentives,
utilities and zoning.

"A Realtor
doesn't have to get into a car and drive folks all over Western New York,"
said County Executive Chris Collins. "They can sit there at a computer and
do it."

It can be
accessed through the Erie County Industrial Development Agency's website,
www.ecidany.com. The website showcases industrial parks with at least 10 acres
of available land.

Kenneth J.
Swanekamp, the county's director of business assistance, said the county has
been working with its municipal partners on getting industrial parks ready for
tenants. "No matter how good your website is, if you don't have the
product, it really doesn't matter," he said.

The website
allows users to search for a location that suits their preferences, whether it
be a new "greenfield" site or a revitalized "brownfield"
site.

Erie County's
Department of Environment and Planning developed the website with support from
the ECIDA and National Grid.

Shaun Donnelly,
a consultant for National Grid, said site selectors -- who scout locations on
behalf of client companies -- have been clamoring for the GIS capabilities that
the new website offers.

Users such as
site selectors can conduct a good amount of research on their own and obtain
that information much faster than they could in the past, Donnelly said.

Beyond the
industrial parks, users can explore details such as how much neighboring land
might be available for a future expansion, or how close the employee entrance
would be to the nearest bus stop, he said.

"The end
user's not interested in simply the bricks and mortar," Donnelly said.

The cost of the project was about $12,000, with
a National Grid grant covering about half.